The invention relates to a device for flat-rolling a ball of dough for obtaining a sheet of dough which then can be rolled up, said device comprising a framework for rotatably supporting at least one pair of rolls for passing said ball of dough between these, said rolls being supported such that they may move towards and away from each other, a biasing means being present to press the rolls towards each other.
Such devices are used on a large scale and serve to remove gases out of the ball of dough as far as this is possible, either to break big gas bubbles or to divide these in a number of smaller gas bubbles without this having a disadvantageous effect on the elasticity of the dough. In this way a regular fine pore-structure in the baked finished article can be obtained. Rolling the ball of dough also serves for bringing the mass of dough in the desired shape so that this can be brought into a baking tin to be baked.
When the two rolls are positioned at a fixed distance from each other the ball of dough will be rolled to a sheet with a nearly equal thickness over its whole length, with a semi-circle front end and a semi-circle rear end.
When such a sheet of dough is rolled up a coarse irregular structure will arise in the baked finished product by the thick end.
In view of this in case of a known device the rolls are pressed towards each other by means of draw springs or compression springs as indicated above. Then the ball of dough is flat-rolled to a sheet of dough which at the ends runs out thinner, which is having a substantially straight front edge and a long pointed rear end.
This is caused because by using the springs the rolls may nearly engage each other so that the opening can be nearly null, by which the ariving ball of dough needs a higher resistance than when the rolls are positioned at a fixed distance from each other. Because of this the dough will be spread more and will form a straight front edge.
Because the spring force is continuously exerted on the rolls, the rolls will follow directly each reduction in dough thickness so that the latest small amount of dough will be rolled to a thin long point.
The latter results in a long spiral-shaped slot when the sheet of dough is rolled up, said slot extending over nearly the whole circumference of the sheet which is rolled up, which is clearly visible in the baked finished product and defaces the bread. This effect is further enhanced by the non-linear force of a spring.
Now the object of the invention is to remove these disadvantages and to provide a device by which it is possible to roll flat a ball of dough to a sheet which runs out thinner at the front and rear end, these ends being substantially straight across. The straight across ends in particular are considered as important.